Sounds more they are 'preparing to prepare' to return to 24/7 alert status..........and assumes a lot..like if they are ever even ordered to make that return. That status change order would come from CiC down the chain via Sec Def Mattis and not from AF Chief of Staff.
I seen a show on Kim last nite. It seems they suspect he drowned his preteen brother as a kid, and may have also killed his mother. I guess he dont want to have any one in family around that could assume his position as king. They know he killed an uncle.
I seen a show on Kim last nite. It seems they suspect he drowned his preteen brother as a kid, and may have also killed his mother. I guess he dont want to have any one in family around that could assume his position as king. They know he killed an uncle.
He promoted his younger sister to a high level position very recently.
"Duyeon Kim, an analyst at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum, told CNN Kim's promotion of his sister "shows that he trusts her and that she is absolutely loyal to her brother.""
Or hand picking his own successor. She is reported to have taken his place when he was down with some illness months back and pretty much ran things in his absence.
The U.S. military is building new flightline facilities that will enable the Air Force to position pilots and aircrews directly alongside its nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, but officials deny the move is part of any plan to put the warplanes on indefinite alert in response to tensions with North Korea.
The construction at Louisiana’s Barksdale Air Force Base includes building renovations near long-vacant “alert pads,” where during the Cold War aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons once sat ready on a continual basis. So-called “strip alerts” were discontinued in 1991 after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
In an interview published Monday by Defense One, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein called the construction a step toward ensuring the military is prepared for all possibilities. The service is “not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we’re prepared going forward,” he said.
The effort comes as the Pentagon mulls a multibillion-dollar modernization for its aging nuclear arsenal, and as it grapples with North Korea’s steady advancements in fielding a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile.
U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the military’s nuclear weapons from its headquarters in Nebraska, denied that any discussions are underway to place B-52s on alert. She said reports suggesting otherwise were mischaracterized.
“The day we are not prepared is the day something can happen,” said Bekah Clark, a spokeswoman for Strategic Command. “So are we preparing for the worst? Absolutely. But we were preparing yesterday, and the day the before that, and so on. And we’ll be preparing tomorrow, too.”
The Air Force, likewise, downplayed that possibility. The service is neither planning nor preparing to put B-52s on alert, said Capt. Mark Graff, a spokesman. Ongoing efforts to upgrade alert facilities, munition storage areas, dining halls and other infrastructure is necessary to “maintain a baseline of readiness,” he said.
“We do this routinely as part of our organize, train and equip mission so our forces are ready to respond when called upon,” he said.
The Pentagon’s current arrangement for nuclear weapons calls for intercontinental ballistic missile facilities to be kept on alert, along with a number of submarines that carry nuclear missiles at sea. The 2010 New START Treaty signed by the United States and Russia allowed them to keep some heavy bombers, but forbid them from putting them on alert status during peacetime.
